When Dylan was almost one and broke his arm, I recall I said this was our “first” broken arm. Well, we are now onto the second and hopefully the last.
Saturday night the boys finished dinner and asked to play at the big kids- which is just 2 houses down from us. Not long after they were gone, I heard my neighbor yelling for me, so I ran over as fast as I could. He had fallen from the monkey bars and I could quickly see that we would be needing to make a trip to the ER. For as many times as we have been to the ER (and I am talking at least half a dozen times), we were really unprepared for this trip. No idea where my car keys were and everything seemed to be scattered. No way could all of us have gone without time to pack for Olivia too. So I hopped in Keith’s truck with a phone that was almost dead, Dylan in his swimming trunks – no shirt, no shoes (luckily the ER still services). I felt terrible not being able to sit next to him and comfort him. He kept saying how badly it hurt, but not over-the-top screaming or anything. So I thought maybe he dislocated the elbow. So I tried to keep him calm telling him stories and then he finally dozed off. I took him to the Unity Point West ER, since it’s a bit closer and seems to be much quicker in and out. My mom and dad were on their way to get dinner so I called them to come out on the way. So they arrived not far behind me. It was really nice to have them there with us! (I think they later made a midnight stop at Village Inn)
One of the first stops was X-ray. This friends was not pleasant for either me or Dylan. It really hurt him to move his arm on the table. (I recall this same experience not being fun the last time). Then we waited, we waited for a long time!
With some back and forth, they finally shared that it was indeed broken, and it was a bad break, in not a great spot, which was also on a growth plate. So we would be transported downtown for surgery. At this point they gave him some Motrin to ease the pain and he would doze off in and out of sleep. Then they put his arm in a splint and we would get to take a little ride in the ambulance downtown to Blank Children’s Hospital. Dylan thought this was pretty cool and kept everyone entertained in the ambulance.
We got checked into the hospital around11:00 and were lucky to talk quickly with the surgeon and go over the procedure. He had a supercondylar fracture, so basically right above the elbow. This type of break would require a pin to hold it in place, which they will remove in 4-5 weeks. He said it will take at least 6 weeks to heal and they will probably keep a cast on a bit longer to ensure it is fully healed.
Probably the best thing to happen on Saturday night was I took him to the bathroom in his room and the toilet just went crazy and kept flushing and flushing. This really took his mind off things and put him in a great mood – telling the nurses they probably needed to get a worker to fix it and that they would probably need to make a new pipe! Then we were off to a new room since they couldn’t fix it. By the time we got settled, Keith was able to join us for a bit (Thanks Scott for staying with the kids so late!) Dylan was really happy to see Keith.
I stayed with Dylan at the hospital and tried to sleep in his bed and not hurt him between the broken arm, IV and cords. (you can imagine how well I slept!) My mom joined us right away in the morning and it was funny because every single thing Keith told Dylan the night before he repeated to my mom. My sister was so kind to get to our house early Sunday to watch Olivia and Carter so Keith could be at the hospital with us. Dylan was super excited to have his dad there with him!
The procedure went pretty well. The hospital was super quiet, being Father’s Day Sunday. I never like the feeling of having your child in surgery or being in pain! The doctor said the procedure went pretty well. Dylan did OK coming out. He had this terrible cough from a tube they had in his throat. And his arm was definitely hurting him badly the first hour or so. Then the Motrin kicked in! I felt really bad with all of that because I could tell he was really hurting. Once I got home I realized that they had not given the poor kid anything stronger than Motrin, but he seems to be doing OK with that so I haven’t requested anything stronger. I told Dylan he was a tough cookie and he thought that was the funniest thing ever!
Once he started feeling a bit better I went home to get Olivia and Carter, Dylan was really excited to have them visit. By the time we got back Dylan was doing much better. I wish I had a video of him and Carter – they were a hoot! Dylan was telling him everything from the ambulance ride to the broken toilet to showing him how the bed goes up and down to this jug he had to pee in. He had gotten Carter a little ice cream and had it in his room fridge – which he was also excited to point out to him. Carter made him a cute card he was so excited to give him. It was a picture of a potato –flamer, he said it would make Dylan laugh. It did! I still have no idea what a potato flamer is.
Dylan is doing pretty darn awesome so far with his cast and using his left hand! He will say it hurts some, but I have not heard one complaint about not being able to do something or complaining about using the left hand. However, I am quickly finding the dynamic of having a twin brother who can do anything a bit challenging. THE poor kid looked so sad trying to ride a big wheel one-handed. He is really going to miss his bike this summer. We are working on some solutions for sprinklers / water slides. The hard part is not having him lose his balance and fall! Then I think it’s hard on Carter because his best friend can’t do all the things they do together.
Here is a picture of Dylan with his Root beer. When we were in the hospital I told him he can have his own – full can as soon as we are home and the doctor says it’s OK and that he deserves it! So when he was drinking it he told me he deserved it! And he did!
And if you are still with me after this lengthy posted – I should mention the surgeon said if there were two things he could get rid of it would be monkey bars and trampolines! When I met with him he had just set another 4 year olds arm from monkey bars.
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